Former Pirelli Star and mitsubishi driver Hayden Paddon was
in a class of his own in the Production Car WrC.
The New Zealander was on his first event in a late model Subaru
Impreza and, with his new independent European-based team,
was having a ball. Apart from the opening Lisbon stage, which
Anders Grondal led, the New Zealander led
the category from start to finish. Pushing him
was first Patrik Flodin, who lost time when he
went off the road and rolled, then for a long
time Grondal chased him.
Grondal however had firstly a broken cross
member which caused mayhem with his
front suspension and then a disconnected
driveshaft, later having a dramatic crash.
After a cautious start in completely new
circumstances came the Mexican Benito
Guerra, but he was delayed by turbo trouble
on the final morning, and then the Finnish
driver Jukka Ketomaki, who by the end of the
rally ended up second but over seven and
half minutes behind.
Paddon had a suspension failure en route,
but was able to replace the rear arm himself,
using one of a vast supply, of spare parts he
was now carrying, on a road section.
Russian driver Dmitry Tagirov had a lucky
escape when he went off the road and a pipe
alongside a bridge pierced his windscreen. He was brave enough
to continue the next day!
Harry Hunt was able to finish and become the first points scorer
in the FIA’s new two-wheel-drive Production Car class
Production car : Paddon masterclass
eStonian driver egon Kaur won the inaugural round of the
Fia WrC academy Cup which was part of the WrC event.
Kaur was the best of the 10 finishers out of the 18 drivers at the
wheel of identical Fiesta R2 cars, all with Pirelli tyres.
After a series of setbacks, Kaur took the lead on SS12, the
penultimate stage, to become the last of four different leaders
over the course of the event.
Yeray Lemes won the Thursday afternoon Lisbon Super Special,
Craig Breen then went ahead until stage nine while Kaur and
Alastair Fisher jockeyed for position behind Breen. Fisher briefly
led when Breen misheard a pace note on SS10 and lost six
minutes, Fisher then went off on stage 12 leaving Kaur to win.
Victor Henriksson used his previous experience in the R2
on the Portuguese stages to bring his Fiesta home safely
in second place and promoting Christian Riedemann,
(proving consistency pays) to claim the final spot on the
WRC Academy podium.
He was ahead of Pirelli Star Driver Brendan Reeves in
fourth and Fisher who nursed his Fiesta back to fifth. Six
different drivers scored fastest stage times during the
event, each gaining supplemental championship points.
Retirements included Lemes with suspension damage, Jan
Cerny with driveshaft trouble which afflicted several others
during the event. Jose Suarez rolled, Fredrik Ahlin also
went off the road while the lady driver Molly Taylor finished
eighth after going off the road.
Kaur takes academy rally
WRC POrtugal
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